Satisfaction
by LilyBolt
Summary: It's Dean's birthday and Sam seems to have something great planned. Or does he? . . . A oneshot set in early season 12. Not a slash fiction.


**WARNING: Major spoilers for 11x23 "Alpha and Omega" onward, but especially for 12x05 "The One You've Been Waiting For".**

 **Author's Note: To celebrate the wonderful Dean Winchester's birthday, I wrote this little story about the day. It's set sometime shortly after 12x05 "The One You've Been Waiting For". Enjoy! :)**

 **Disclaimer: I don't own Supernatural.**

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Dean Winchester's day began like most others with a quick shower, a foray into the bunker's kitchen in search of breakfast, and a greeting offered to a little brother who had been up much earlier than Dean himself. Things ventured away from his version of 'normal', however, when said little brother responded to Dean's groggy, "Morning Sammy," with an enthusiastic, "Happy Birthday!" followed by a hesitant, "Alright so I know it's your day, but there's something in town just for one afternoon and I really _really_ want to go. I promise I'll make it up to you tonight?"

The elder man blinked, barely awake enough to process what was going on. He was aware it was his birthday, he'd seen the date on his phone a half hour ago. But the rest of what Sam had said was still a jumble of confusion to him. All that truly registered was the look of boyish excitement on his sibling's face, like he was on the verge of doing something he'd absolutely love, if only his older sibling would give the O.K.

Dean had never been very skilled at saying 'no' to a hopeful Sammy.

Deciding that he hadn't been planning anything special for his birthday anyway, so why not spend part of it granting his brother the opportunity to do whatever it was he was so eager for, Dean replied, "It's no problem, go do your thing. I'm fine with just having a down-day here on my own. I don't get much time to relax. That's a great birthday in my book."

Sam smiled before requesting, "Actually, I was hoping you'd come too. You don't get much time to go out and do non-hunting stuff, either. I think we'll have fun."

There was something suspicious about the way Sam had yet to directly address whatever this 'something' was which he apparently wanted them both to get to do, and Dean began to wonder if Sam was _really_ planning something specific for his birthday.

He chose to play oblivious.

"I've got nothing better to do. Sure, I guess I can tag along," he agreed, causing his brother to look pleased.

"Great! Be ready to leave in fifteen, ok?" Sam instructed then strode out of the kitchen, pulling out his phone likely to look up directions, and walking with an air of accomplishment that made Dean feel certain he was in for some surprise or another when they went out.

 **OoO**

After a small-by-Winchester-standards amount of driving, the older brother's suspicions were shaken.

Sam had requested the driver's seat since he'd known where they were going, and Dean had acquiesced in order to spare him from needing to reveal wherever they were headed before they even hit the road, but now he was wondering if he should've bothered at all.

They pulled into a small parking lot of a community park a few cities away from Lebanon, and coating the sprawling lawns were a variety of tents and stalls which seemed to all boast a wide array of art, pottery, and furniture.

"Surprise!" Sam announced merrily.

"Is this a…swap meet or something?" Dean asked, squinting through the Impala's windshield and hoping that the glare of the sun was somehow altering the image in front of him.

Sam explained, "Close, sort of. It's a home craft fair. You're always talking about stuff you'd do around the bunker if you had the time, and I figured taking you here might be a good way to either get you started, or at least help you find something to get for your room that you'd like."

Dean turned his gaze to his brother and found Sam's wide eyes watching him, presumably for signs of whether or not he'd made the right choice.

The older sibling couldn't bring himself to shatter the kid's optimism. After all, Sam had clearly tried to be thoughtful, he'd just missed the mark a little in the end.

Putting on a smile, Dean stated, "That's, uh, really nice! Thanks."

For a moment Sam looked as though he might laugh, and Dean experienced a flare of hope that maybe this wasn't Sam's real plan after all, but then Sam simply checked a text message on his phone and his features settled into seriousness once more as he exited the driver's seat, waving for Dean to follow him.

With a deep breath, Dean left the comfort of his vehicle behind to catch up as Sam led the way into a world of ornate lamps, wooden sculptures, and over-sized vases.

 **OoO**

Several hours later, and Dean hadn't had as bad of a time as he'd expected. It wasn't great, but it wasn't awful either. They'd wandered through the rows of booths looking over the many offered crafts, and even though Dean was sure ninety percent of the items for sale belonged in either an elderly woman's living room or a thrift store, they did find a few things worth checking out.

A glass-blowing booth boasted some impressively intricate trinkets made on-site, and another stand had funnel cakes, which Dean considered to be a worthy investment despite the fact that Sam wasn't interested in getting one for himself. The younger man remained immersed in his phone while Dean ordered a deluxe version of the delicious pastry, coated in everything from chocolate chips, to cheesecake bits, to caramelized apple chunks.

He and Sam had also enjoyed making jokes about the stranger items they came across at the craft fair, including a painting of a rosy-cheeked chubby man in a vibrant green kilt rolling around on the ground with a large black dog. The artist had named the painting "Man's Best Friend", but Sam and Dean had readily christened it "Crowley and Juliet".

All in all the day wasn't terrible, and it _had_ been nice to get out of the bunker on non-business for a change.

While Dean was pretending to try and make sense of an abstract painting for the sake of continuing to stand in the presence of the attractive female who had painted it, Sam looked up from his cell and said, "It's getting late. We should get going."

Reluctantly Dean withdrew his attention from the painting and its beautiful creator. "It's only 5pm," he pointed out.

"Yeah, but we've got the whole drive back, and I'm feeling pretty tired," Sam said with a slight yawn.

Dean didn't object and they began trekking back towards their car.

"Sorry you, um, didn't find anything worth getting," Sam apologized awkwardly when they reached the black Chevy, tossing Dean her keys over the car's roof as he spoke.

Dean shrugged. "It was still a pretty good day, I'm not complaining," he assured his brother sincerely.

There was something in Sam's gaze which Dean found surprisingly difficult to decipher, but it seemed akin to satisfaction so he didn't worry.

It was definitely the weirdest birthday he'd had, but the time spent with Sam and the fact that the kid had tried doing something for the day at all despite their usual habit of brushing over birthdays, had more than compensated for the bizarre nature of the chosen activities.

They entered the vehicle and settled in for the drive home, and Dean felt genuinely content with his day.

 **OoO**

They arrived back at the bunker feeling drowsy, but in good spirits. In an attempt to make up for Dean not having found anything other than food worth purchasing at the craft event, Sam had allowed the volume of their travel music to be increased past his usual limits. He'd even joined in with Dean's sing-alonging for most of the trip, save for a few times when he had become occupied with his phone.

They parked Baby and treaded into their home.

The bunker door opened, and instead of revealing an empty map-room like he was accustomed to, Dean discovered that the front area contained two figures who both chimed, "Surprise!" upon his entrance before blowing into tiny plastic noisemakers.

Sam's voice echoed the others from just behind, and Dean took a second to take in what was going on.

"Happy Birthday, Dean," Sam repeated his words from earlier, this time with a changed tone that made Dean aware this was different than it had been before. Whatever this was, it's what Sam had been planning all along, Dean was certain.

Dean stared down at the two people, quickly recognizing them as Castiel and...

His mom was there.

Mary Winchester was smiling warmly up at him as he descended the curved metal staircase.

"What's-? You guys didn't have to do all this," Dean couldn't help but to say.

His gaze swept the room to discover streamers wrapped around the pillars leading from the map room into the library, balloons scattered along the floor, a pie-box and a couple wrapped presents stacked on the map table, and even an envelope that looked like it must contain a traditional birthday card.

"It's your birthday, Dean. Of course we did this," his mother answered, still smiling. Looking like she was _actually_ glad to be there.

Heart pounding at the sight of his family all gathered around the most normal birthday arrangement Dean had seen in years, the elder Winchester man was at a loss for words.

Apparently sensing his plight, Sam jumped in to say, "Funny story, this was never meant to happen as late as it did. That fair I dragged you to? I'd meant it as a joke. I was supposed to pull up, pretend it was your surprise, then laugh off your reaction before telling you the real deal was back in Lebanon. It was just supposed to be something to keep you out of the house for a couple hours while Cas got things ready and Mom drove up. That's why I picked one so far away. But when we got there I saw Mom had texted me that she'd be late because she couldn't find a Piggly Wiggly, and then she hit traffic coming here, and basically I had to actually take you into the fair and keep stalling us leaving. I felt so bad, especially because you went along with it. You didn't complain once even though I was giving you a birthday experience that I _know_ you wouldn't have picked out for yourself in a million years."

Suddenly the whole picture was becoming clearer to Dean.

The way Sam had looked like he was about to laugh when he revealed to Dean their supposed destination, only to change expression the moment he'd glanced at his phone, Sam's obsession with his phone throughout the day in general, even the fact that Sam had been extra keen on making the return drive as enjoyable as possible for Dean.

But something else had stood out in Sam's story…

"Wait, why did you need to find a Piggly Wiggly, Mom?" he asked, turning to his mother.

Mary shrugged and answered, "You'd told me you remembered 'my' meatloaf so fondly. I wanted to make sure you could have it again for your birthday."

Laughter came out of him suddenly, and as it flowed Dean felt lighter than he had in ages.

Looking back to his brother, Dean breathed, "And to think I'd actually been cool with our day. I had no idea…"

It was Sam's turn to chuckle. "You're way too easy to please, you know that?" the younger man teased.

"I prefer to view myself as eclectic with what I can enjoy," Dean tossed back, smirking.

Mary was staring at her sons, appearing more comfortable with the fact that they were grown men than Dean had seen her yet, and Cas was looking on the scene clearly pleased with what he saw.

"Here, open stuff!" Sam changed the subject, ushering Dean toward the map table and the parcels that awaited him.

Dean reached for the card first, digging in to find a picture of Batman punching the Joker in the face with a caption that read "BAM! No joke, it's your birthday." Dean grinned at the utter lameness of it and the fact that Sam had given him something relating to their favorite superhero. Underneath the card's print was a hand-scribbled note from the younger man himself:

 _You know how you've had the same collection of cassette tapes forever? Well I found a website where you can buy even more of them. They're dirt cheap, too. Go nuts._

 _-Sam_

The web address of the site was scrawled under that, and taped to the other side of the card was a Visa gift card worth twenty five dollars.

"You're gonna regret giving me this information, you know that, right?" Dean stated to his brother with a mischievous look.

Sam shook his head and retorted, "I doubt it. If it means we get to listen to any song I haven't heard in the car a billion times, I'll be thrilled. Even if I have to hear you sing them."

"Touché," Dean conceded, ignoring the remark about his vocals and picking up the first of the two gifts sitting on the table.

"That's from me," Mary announced while he began tearing into the colorful wrapping paper. Inside he found a box with the words "Bacon Cooker" printed on it, and that's all he needed to see before he was beaming and thanking his mother profusely.

"Do you know how many times I've told Sam we need one of these?" Dean questioned the room.

Sam cut in with, "'Want' and 'need' aren't the same thing, Dean."

Castiel looked at the kitchen appliance with curiosity before saying wistfully, "I miss when bacon tasted good."

"Correction, Cas. Bacon _always_ tastes good. You miss the days when you were able to taste good things," Dean asserted with all the authority of an expert.

"Here, this is from Sam and I," Cas brushed over the comment, pushing the final package across the glass table to Dean.

Dean picked it up and rapidly discovered it was much heavier than the Bacon Cooker.

"What in the-?" he muttered as he removed from the wrapping a large, flat, square object. It was mostly wooden, but its face was coated in a thin sheet of silver metal with an engraving upon it.

Dean observed the words etched into the surface of the plaque and ended up smiling the most he had all day. They read:

 _Badass of 2016 Award_

 _Granted to Dean Winchester_

 _for the epic act of shooting Adolf Hitler in the head,_

 _and for his expert pre-kill snark: "Heil this."_

"I got the blank plaque and wrote out the message, then Cas handled the engraving," Sam's voice interrupted Dean's moment of wonderment.

"You engraved this yourself?" Dean asked his best friend in disbelief, looking at the evenness of the lettering.

"He volunteered and I figured if he could carve Enochian all over our ribs, he could manage something like this," Sam said. Dean nodded, having forgotten about the carvings done to his ribs over five years before.

Castiel was clearly trying not to let his pride show as he stated in his best nonchalant tone, "It took longer than your ribs because I don't work with the English alphabet as often as I do the Enochian one. But it wasn't too hard." He then said as though it had been on his mind, "I asked Sam to explain the story behind this, but he said a better gift to you would be to let you tell me. I'd be very interested in getting the full story."

"This is happening," Dean excitedly assured the angel, throwing Sam an approving look while feeling impressed by how perfect the gift was.

And that only made him aware of how impressed he was with _everything_ around him. The effort and planning that had gone into this birthday was far more than he'd anticipated, and considering he had been truly ok with the weird activity Sam had apparently not actually wanted to force him into, it was somewhat overwhelming to be confronted with the exact sort of activity he would have wanted most of all.

He got to spend his birthday with his family, all of them. His brother, his best friend, even his mom. It was the best birthday he'd had in decades, probably, and he was determined to enjoy every minute of it.

"Is anyone else starving?" Dean addressed the group around him.

With a knowing look, Mary declared, "The oven is preheated already. I can have your meatloaf, potatoes, and corn on the cob ready in thirty." She stood from her seat, prepared to make her way back toward the kitchen.

Dean's mouth began to water at the thought of the feast awaiting him, and the nostalgia of getting to eat the food he remembered from his earliest years.

"Thanks," he responded.

He paused.

"Really, thank you guys for this. For all of it. It's awesome," he added more seriously.

The three of them exchanged victorious looks, as if his satisfaction was a prize.

For the first time in a long time, Dean felt like it really was.

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 **Secondary Author's Note: Thanks for reading! I hope you enjoyed this shameless birthday fluff for Dean. Lol If you have a moment, please do leave feedback. It's always greatly appreciated. :)**


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